The government has announced a £4.5m investment to equip the Office of Fair
Trading (OFT) and Trading Standards with the teams, training and technology
needed to combat online scams.
Recent OFT research found that scams cost three million UK consumers over
£3bn a year, and that three quarters of the population have been sent an email
scam in the past year.
The new funding will be spread over the next three years, and will be used to
target ticket scams and fraudulent web sites, among other criminal operations.
"Online consumer protection is a key priority for the OFT," said Heather
Clayton, senior director of OFT.
